The speaker describes a snowy, overcast, wooded landscape. She asks a listener—a "you"—whether they indeed saw a male and female deer together in the orchard. The speaker shares that she, too, saw the deer, running away with their tails lifted. They jumped over the orchard wall and ran into the woods.
Now, the speaker says, the male deer is lying in the snow, which is stained with his blood. The speaker remarks on the strangeness of death, which had the ability to bring the buck down. Equally strange is life, which, embodied by the doe's stare, is probably now far away under the snow-laden trees.
